Johann
Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) had many professional responsibilities and
relationships with patrons and other musicians throughout his life that
involved writing special music. The prolific composer was himself a virtuoso
keyboard player and violinist who excelled in writing instrumental music, and
he was a church musician and man of devout Christian faith who composed a
variety of eloquent sacred music. As a result, Bach left a significant body of
work.

To
acquire a complete recording collection of Bach’s compositions would be a
dramatic commitment of time and financial resources. Therefore, I’ve jotted
down this broad overview of “Essential Bach” music and some suggested
recordings. It is NOT intended to be a conclusive, exhaustive or definitive
survey of his work. Rather, I propose it as a starting point to explore Bach’s
extraordinary legacy and some of the musicians who do justice to it, in my
opinion. It’s meant to augment the March 24, 2019 playlist for the Sunday
Baroque Bach Birthday Bash, so you can assume everything on the playlist is
also worth your consideration. This list is, by definition, highly subjective –
these are my opinions and suggestions for where to begin and which performers I
admire. It is also an incomplete list, because Bach’s output is too
far-reaching and enormous to encapsulate in one simple list. I consider this an
open-ended recommendation that will undoubtedly change and expand with new and
alternate performances of these and other Bach compositions.

Goldberg Variations BWV 988

Organ Works and Cantatas
– BWV various

NOTE: Bach wrote A LOT of cantatas and solo organ music, and there are a few box sets that have them all. They are fine recordings, but they are a splurge and a big commitment. For cantatas I recommend the collections by ensembles such as Bach Collegium Japan with Masaaki Suzuki, Bach-Collegium Stuttgart with Helmut Rilling, or the Bach Pilgrimage series recorded by John Eliot Gardiner with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists. For complete organ collections, try organists such as Ton Koopman, Marie-Claire Alain, and Simon Preston. However, if you want to tread more modestly into these arenas without breaking the bank try these:

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]]>http://sundaybaroque.org/essential-bach/feed/02666Why Does Music Matter?http://sundaybaroque.org/why-does-music-matter/
http://sundaybaroque.org/why-does-music-matter/#commentsSun, 10 Mar 2019 13:56:58 +0000http://sundaybaroque.org/?p=2661... Read more »
]]>I recently attended a piano recital given by an extraordinarily talented friend. His program included a solo piano version of the first part of Igor Stravinsky’s groundbreaking ballet, THE RITE OF SPRING. It was the second time I’d heard my friend play this challenging work, and for the second time I was blown away. The transcription captured the powerful essence of the orchestral work, and the performer — whose technical abilities are otherworldly — conveyed nuances and instrumental timbres that one would think impossible. How can one piano sound like a lone bassoon, a brass section, or a woodwind section? And yet, he did it convincingly, and it was transforming to me in emotional, psychological and even physical ways.

When I attend a particularly moving or impressive musical performance, I find myself with an urgent need to play my flute. It’s like the kid who looks out the window and sees friends playing in the street and feels compelled to drop everything and join them. It’s an itch that must be scratched. So I went home and tackled some music I’m preparing for upcoming performances, and I felt transformed again.

As music lovers, we know and take for granted that music can be such a powerful force, affecting one’s emotions in so many ways. But why? How? What’s that all about?

Speaking recently with some outstanding teenage musicians who’d won a local orchestra’s concerto competition, I asked each of them: Why does music matter? They ranged in age from 13-17, and every one of these wise young people said some version of this: it’s the best way to connect with emotions and express feelings. One told me it’s better than words and that, even though he aspires to a career as a surgeon, he will never give up his music. Another told me that music matters — all genres of music — because it affects people’s lives and makes people happy. One young musician said that after a long day, music provides a means to shed stress and go to “another world.” She passionately explained that music is a “universal language that connects everyone.” They spoke as performers and as listeners, and they referred to not just classical, but jazz, pop, and other genres. The common thread was MUSIC.

So now it’s your turn: Why does music matter to YOU? Why does music matter in general? What unique experience do you get from music, whether it’s from listening or playing music yourself?

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]]>http://sundaybaroque.org/playlist-2019-02-24/feed/02635Earworms and Air Conductinghttp://sundaybaroque.org/earworms-and-air-conducting/
Mon, 18 Feb 2019 12:35:39 +0000http://sundaybaroque.org/?p=2626... Read more »
]]>Have you ever heard the word “earworm”? It’s a melody that gets into your brain and won’t go away — a tune you keep humming over and over until you eventually find a way to dislodge it, or it mercifully evaporates on its own. “Air conducting” is the reflexive waving of arms that happens when you hear music that is so compelling it engages your invisible conductor’s baton to keep time.

I was thinking about earworms and air conducting recently when I heard the Fanfare from THUS SPAKE ZARATHUSTRA (most familiar from the 1968 Stanley Kubrick film 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY) by Richard Strauss. This particular music has the power to generate an earworm, inspire air conducting AND cause spontaneous air-timpani-playing, too! (At least it did for me!) It brought to mind other music with especially strong magnetic powers: George Frideric Handel’s HALLELUJAH CHORUS from his oratorio MESSIAH, for example. Handel had a particular gift for writing catchy tunes that draw listeners in and make us want to sing along. I have been on road trips during which everyone in the car joined in to sing along with that one. If you have ever attended a performance of MESSIAH, you probably experienced the audience spontaneously standing up when the HALLELUJAH CHORUS began. That’s because, according to legend, when King George attended a performance of MESSIAH he stood when the HALLELUJAH CHORUS began. Since protocol dictated that when the King stands, everyone stands, everyone in attendance rose to their feet. Was Handel’s music so compelling to the King, so mesmerizing, so dramatic, that he couldn’t help himself? Or did the King just need a stretch break during the long oratorio, which lasts around 2 1/2 hours? We’ll probably never know for sure, but either scenario is plausible.

The main theme of Franz Schubert’s UNFINISHED SYMPHONY is another composition that tends to lodge in my brain. (Forever edified, for better or worse, by the words superimposed to help generations of people remember it: “This is the Symphony that Schubert wrote and never finished …”) It can feel fun and cathartic to sing along or air conduct with a snippet from a monumental piece of music! The downside of earworms, though, is that they are not always generated by great works like Handel’s HALLELUJAH CHORUS or Schubert’s UNFINISHED SYMPHONY — sometimes they are commercial jingles or other insipid tunes.

What music typically gives you an earworm? Are there particular compositions that draw you in, or is there a “type” of music that does it? Do you have any tried and true methods of dislodging earworms? Do you ever find yourself air conducting and, if so, what kinds of music creates that impulse? Have you ever been “caught” playing air timpani (or guitar, or violin) when you didn’t realize you were doing it? Please share your experiences!